Improving Accessibility for Work Opportunities for Adults With Autism in an End-to-End Supported Workplace Program: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Cohort Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adults with autism have a strong desire and need for employment that matches their strengths, skills, and interests. Yet, they are more likely to be un- or underemployed than their neurotypical peers. Facilitators to successful employment include positive attitudes toward and awareness of autism in the workplace, and provision of adequate support and accommodations, including mental health support. Despite previous workplace programs identifying the need for adapted recruitment and interviewing processes, awareness training, and ongoing employee support, there are no programs that specifically provide these supports and adaptations for employees with autism. OBJECTIVE: In this study protocol, we describe a framework for a new end-to-end supported workplace program for adults with autism that encompasses 8 key areas to promote inclusive workplaces and improve recruitment and retention of employees with autism. METHODS: Candidates with autism (n=15) will complete 2 workplace skills training sessions at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre, before attending a tailored interview, onboarding session, and paid 12-week placement at consulting firm Ernst and Young (EY). EY managers and colleagues (n=30) will complete a half-day awareness and inclusion training program before supporting the adults with autism through their 12-week placements. Tailored mental health support will also be provided. This mixed methods cohort study will assess the change in the daily functioning and well-being of employees with autism, as well as the change in the managers' and colleagues' knowledge, attitude, and confidence in working with adults with autism following the training programs. These changes will be analyzed using repeated measures of ANOVAs. RESULTS: Data collection for this study was completed in February 2022. As of November 2024, data analysis was in progress. This study is expected to be submitted for publication in June 2025. CONCLUSIONS: This study holds the potential to enhance the recruitment and retention of adults with autism, as well as their overall experience in the workplace. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/60806.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.041 | 0.022 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.007 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.006 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.045 | 0.009 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".